A Patch of Fog

I couldn't find anything to watch so I decided to check out movie trailers from films featured on Netflix. Came across this hidden gem. Solid story. The two main actors were great. Wasn't the greatest film but was definitely a sweet surprise. Give it a watch

It was just ok. The daft ending let the whole thing down.

Reading the plot summary for the film sounded like a straight up psycho thriller that would have sited comfortably in Michael Douglas' résumé if this were made 20 years ago, so my initial expectations were pretty much fair to middling. Sandy leads a comfortable life in Belfast. He's a university lecturer and a regular guest on a popular television arts programme. His one novel, though published many years ago, is still in print and regarded a classic. But Sandy has a habit of stealing things for kicks. S Shoplifting has become the one little thrill in his overly domesticated life - but when Sandy gets caught by Robert, a desperately lonely security guard, his life is turned inside out....... Although the film has very little to,surprise you with its narrative, it's the performances from the two leads that really make the film stand out. Ever since This Is England, Graham has that knack of really striking fear into the viewer whenever he is on screen, even in those overblown Johnny Depp in make up films. And this is what grips you from the very moment his hand grips Sandy's shoulder, you are waiting for the moment that Sandy says something or does something that will turn their pseudo relationship sour, and it's not as subtle as you'd think. All the tropes of these psycho thrillers are here though, and it deters the film for being as excellent as it should be, it relies on the performances of the protagonist/antagonist (which sounds silly I know), rather than being daring and do something more original. Even though it harks back to Unlawful Entry/Pacific Heights/Single White Female/ Consenting Adults/Fatal attraction, I couldn't help but think it was more of a hybrid of Misery meets The Cable Guy. It sounds like a damning criticism of the film. It's really not. It doesn't stretch the premise within an inch of its life, it doesn't use any cheap parlour tricks to get cheap thrills. It's just a purely entertaining film with two wonderful performances, and one hell of an ending. It's so unexpected. Well worth seeking out.

I new nothing about this movie apart from the always watchable Stephen Graham was in it. Well as usual Graham was excellent as the lonely security guard who catches a local TV celebrity shop lifting. He then uses this to blackmail the celebrity, but instead of money it's his friendship he craves. What follows is an original fast paced psychological thriller full of plot twists and turns that never fail to keep you gripped and entertained. It shows you don't have to spend a hundred million dollars to make a good movie, and trust me this is a good movie highly recommended.

Patch Of Fog stars Stephen Graham in an immensely creepy role and Game Of Thrones own Conleth Hill. The general theme, stalker which let's be honest has been done to death but there is always more to add and Patch Of Fog proves that. With an interesting twist to the concept both leads bring fantastic performances to the plate and really knock it out of the park but somehow someway I was left feeling very uncomfortable by the whole thing. Arguably this is what the creators were going for but for me it was a bit much. Wildly unpredictable, mostly well written and with a couple of neat ideas I would have enjoyed Patch Of Fog a bit more if Grahams character had been dialed down a little. I've actually had not one, not two but three stalkers myself (Not even joking) An older gay gentleman, a much older lady who thought I was her late husband and a deeply psychotic girl at college who used to beat the doors of the classrooms I was in until the police pulled her away. One time she even told a lecturer to back off, she knew kungfu. For this reason I understood the leads plight but maybe I didn't like it as it caused Vietnam like flashbacks for me. Yeeeek!

I watched this on Netflix last night and it was a case of what shall i watch ? i couldn't be bothered to go through all the thriller list so i just chose the first one that was there,and this was it. I wasn't expecting much from this film as i could tell straight away that it was made on a low budget.But i was so wrong this film is brilliant ,its tense,gripping and keeps you wondering all the time what is going to happen next.It is full of twists and you cant help watching and wondering how it is all going to end.The two main actors play their parts really well,their two characters are very different people and would never be friends normally,but Tony the security guard is such a lonely person that he is willing to trap ,stalk and blackmail someone into being his friend.His a very sad character but also very creepy.Sandy the other man is a well off TV celebrity who has a habit of kleptomania ,Tony catches him in his shop and ends up blackmailing him into being his friend. This is basically the plot of the film but what follows you don't see coming.Its a very unpredictable film which is what i like most about it and i never guessed the ending either.

I just caught this film on Sky Movies. Most of the films that premier on Sky without having had a cinema release tend to be pretty bad. 90% of the time I switch them off after 20 minutes. But I stuck with this one even though it was a little slow starting. It's a fairly low budget Brit flick and at times it looks and feels like a daytime soap, but the quality of the story makes it rise above the usual low budget affairs. I could even see this film being remade by Hollywood with some big A-list names in the two main roles. Stephen Graham is great as the lonely store detective, while Lord Varys from Game of Thrones is decent in the lead role, although with hair he looks and sounds like Eamon Holmes. This would have worked well as an episode of Tales of the Unexpected because for a feature length film it is drawn out in places. But recognising that the filmmakers have kept it to just over 80 minutes. What keeps the viewer watching (apart from the solid acting) are the regular twists and turns in the script. After the first 20 minutes there's a twist every 10 minutes or so and some of them are quite excellent. One in particular around the 45 minute mark was a real beauty. This film is definitely worth a look. Much better than your usual low budget Brit flicks.

A nice little story taking place in urban northern Ireland using some of the seasoned cast of game of thrones and perhaps some of the crew involved too. Nice to see the group staying together and completing other projects in between game of thrones. Something similar happened last year at tiff with the Fargo TV crew and "Cut Bank" (Fargo 2.0) starring John Malkovich as the rural sheriff High production values. Clever,well spoken dialogue in a first full length feature from a young director who previous did some short film submissions at tiff. Well worth seeing. Cleverly done and enjoyable to all. Interesting Q&A afterwards. Thanks to all that attended. Mike

I enjoyed every second of this film! I won't dare spoil it for anyone except to say brilliant performances by Conleth Hill and Stephen Graham! A must see!

Let me start with the negative before praising how good of a movie this is. Downside of this film is in it's retake on an tired cliche: the patriarchal struggles of all men to come to grips with their fathers. Honestly, have you ever known a man who had a healthy relationship with his father? The story is as old as the Bible, Adam and God, them Able and Cain, then Jacob and Essau then Jesus and his Heavenly Father all the way to pretty much every single film of our times. However, this film is an excellent artistic retake on this old cliche. The son cannot relate to the world unless he puts his relationship with his father in order. Freud called it Oedipal Complex, film theory calls it Oedipal Trajectory. Sandy Duffy thought his father abandoned him when he got lost as a child in the fog. But little he knew that his father spent years penning a book about his fear of never leaving the house and dedicated it to Sandy, who plagiarized it in his own name and became famous and rich as a result. But as we see in a pivotal moment of the film he wanted his father to rescue or at least search for him when he got lost not to dedicated his novel to him. That my friend is the story all men who miss their absent fathers. They don't want the riches their father left them. They want their fathers' approval, intimacy. Of course the film only hints at this longing for father. Instead it focuses on its consequences, which are the loneliness that men are condemned to endure under patriarchy. The security guard (about whom we know so little) is the mirror image of Sandy Duffy the successful writer. Sandy Duffy is able to conceal his loneliness under his wealth and fame, Robert the security guard who caught him shoplifting has nothing at all, no talent, no education, can't even read properly so he asks Sandy to record audio tapes of his book for him. Bring them together and you have a potent story of unrequited friendship. This is the story of our contemporary men who have so much in common in their loneliness yet are so ill equipped to come together except if they are forced to by threats of extortion or being exposed as frauds that they are. I don't mean to generalize here but if you are a middle aged man ask yourself whether you are not a fraud, an emotionally crippled man due to your father's failures? The coming together of these two men cannot but be destructive as turns and twists of the film all the was to the very end demonstrates.